WMBB News 13 - The Panhandle's News LeaderPanel Votes to End Some Insurance Coverage Mandates

Panel Votes to End Some Insurance Coverage Mandates

After a sometimes-emotional debate, a House subcommittee Tuesday narrowly approved a bill that would eliminate requirements that health insurers cover bone-marrow transplants and several other types of medical services.

But the House Health & Human Services Quality Subcommittee refused to go along with Chairman John Wood's proposals to eliminate four other so-called insurance "mandates,'' including autism coverage and treatment of cleft palates.

A stream of lobbyists, former lawmakers and parents went before the subcommittee to argue against cutting mandated coverages, which business groups and the insurance industry have long blamed for driving up premiums.

"This is a moral issue,'' Florida Pediatric Society lobbyist Sam Bell said at one point, as he successfully argued to keep a requirement that can help families buy nutritional supplements needed by children with genetic disorders. "This is not dollars and cents.''

But Wood, R-Winter Haven, said he is trying to address health-insurance costs and move away from government requirements on the way coverage is sold. A House staff analysis said state law has 59 different types of insurance mandates, and critics say the combined costs particularly hit small businesses and individual insurance buyers.

"Each of these mandates could stand on their own as a good public policy. None of them cost very much,'' Florida Insurance Council lobbyist Paul Sanford told the subcommittee. "The problem is, we have 59 of them.''

The subcommittee voted 8-7 to approve the bill (PCB HSQS 12-03), with two Republicans joining five Democrats in opposition.

The details of mandates vary, but the bill would repeal at least nine requirements that deal with issues such as bone-marrow transplants, podiatry, chiropractic treatments, massage therapy and acupuncture. Wood called the targeted mandates a "starting point.''

Subcommittee members, however, bucked Wood's proposals to repeal mandates related to autism, cleft palate, substance-abuse treatment and the nutritional assistance for children with certain genetic disorders.

Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, said the proposal to repeal the coverage mandate for cleft palate showed the "absurdity" of the bill. Without the requirement, he said parents wouldn't know that they needed to buy coverage for the birth defect that requires costly surgeries and treatment.

"You cannot know that the abnormality is going to be in a child at any point in time during the pregnancy,'' Randolph said.

The meeting also included personal stories from some familiar figures in the Capitol.

As an example, Florida Dental Association lobbyist Ron Watson told the committee how his son is autistic and needed a bone-marrow transplant because of leukemia. Also, former Rep. Susan Goldstein, who has an autistic daughter, said a lot of "blood, sweat and tears" went into getting the autism requirement passed.

But groups such as the Florida Association of Health Plans, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida expressed support for getting rid of mandates, pointing to the difficulties that businesses and individuals face in affording health insurance.

"It gets harder and harder each year,'' AIF lobbyist Jose Gonzalez said.

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Information provided by the News Service of Florida